I doubt we’ll ever see a single, universal cable or connector to power each and every single mobile gadget… However, given the various devices that pass through my home and auto, it appears like we’ve settled on a solid trio of options.
Of course, there’s the iEcosystem’s dock connector. Yeah, it’s mostly proprietary. But given the vast number of iPods, iPhones, and iPads in circulation, it’s essentially the standard for many. Mini USB seems to be broadly deployed as well. Although, it’s clearly losing ground to the slimmer Micro USB connector. In fact, that revelation is what inspired this post. Just about every non-iDevice I’ve come across in recent months sports Micro USB. See my Blackberry Tour, Droid X (loaner), and Kindle above, for example.
Even though the industry hasn’t settled on a single, common connection, the majority of cables fortunately terminate with a standard USB connector for charging and/or syncing purposes. Making the nearly flush Belkin USB auto charger below a handy universal adapter. I picked up a pair last fall for our vehicles, and they’ve served us (and our gadgets) well. The ultimate home solution is probably a small, powered USB hub and some short cables from Monoprice. Unless, there’s an attractive charging station that already meets this need. Bueller?
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I picked up the belkin auto charger in an emergency once at best buy, and it came with a home plug (similar to the apple home usb charger) and an iPod cable. They are both so handy...
I also bought a Mini Surge Protector with USB Charger that I keep in my travel bags to keep the 3 phones, 2 ipods, 2 nooks, and 1 gps charged when we are on the road.
Actually, the majority of mobile phone manufacturers HAVE agreed to use micro-usb as their standard charger interface (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus#Mobile_device_charger_standards).
Oh boy, Dave is as OCD as I am about this.
For years, I had an iGo that charged my laptop and mobile devices. It was also an emPower inflight adaptor, which I used a lot because I was traveling frequently overseas (and was often upgraded to Business Class). Later, I switched to one mini iGo that charged my mobile devices, plus a separate laptop power adaptor (darn you, patented MagSafe adaptor!).
Nowadays, I'm less concerned about the mini plugs than I am about the AC adaptor. So I have a nice Belkin 3-socket USB power adaptor. With that, I can carry a bunch of wires - mini-USB, Apple iPod/iPhone, and Kindle for Mrs. G. But the wires take up virtually no space or weight in my bags.
And if I'm traveling alone, I usually leave the USB power adaptor at home and just charge devices off the USB outlet on my laptop.